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Jun 25, 2024 | 
thebanner.org | Lesa Cline-Ransome
In 1879, 11-year-old Lettie learns that her father, Thomas, is planning to move his family along with other Black pioneers from Natchez, Miss., to Nebraska. Lettie is filled with sadness at the thought of leaving behind her best friend and her loving aunts, uncles, and cousins. But Thomas will allow nothing to stand in the way of his dream to escape the poverty, discrimination, and restrictions he faces in his home state where slavery forged his childhood.
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Jun 12, 2024 | 
teachmag.com | Alliah L. Agostini |Lesa Cline-Ransome
Originally published in TEACH Magazine, May/June 2024 IssueJuneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, the last enslaved people in Texas were emancipated. Over 150 years later, in 2021, Juneteenth was established as an official federal holiday in the U.S., although it has been observed in Texas and other states since 1866.
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May 5, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Hena Khan |Lesa Cline-Ransome |James E. Ransome |Lisbeth Kaiser
The story of the Al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco, narrated by the building itself. In 859, Fatima Al-Fihri, the daughter of a rich merchant, decided to build a mosque and school. “I began as a small corner for books, where Fatima spent hours reading, thinking, and dreaming.” Over time, the library explains that it “grew into a grand building.” The library, which served both Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and Al-Qarawiyyin University, was a tranquil space within bustling Fez.
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Apr 13, 2024 | 
entertainment-mag.com | Lesa Cline-Ransome
ONE BIG OPEN SKY, by Lesa Cline-RansomeFrom a history book released in paperback in 1992, during my freshman year of college, I learned about the thousands of Black people who left the South in the late 19th century to move to the West, pursuing freedoms promised by the Homestead Act of 1862.
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Apr 12, 2024 | 
nytimes.com | Lesa Cline-Ransome
What to Read Find Your Next Book Spring Fiction Preview Spring Nonfiction Preview April Releases 22 Funny Novels What to Read Find Your Next Book Spring Fiction Preview Spring Nonfiction Preview April Releases 22 Funny Novels Lesa Cline-Ransome's new novel in verse adds female voices to the late-19th-century Black homesteaders movement.
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Jan 16, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Elisa Boxer |Lesa Cline-Ransome |James E. Ransome |Lisbeth Kaiser
A tree survives the Holocaust, though most of the children who cared for it don’t. It’s winter in Terezin, the Czechoslovakian propaganda camp with which the Nazis tricked the credulous Red Cross into believing their treatment of Jews was humane. Here, children are allowed to attend school, and one teacher, Irma Lauscher, has the children plant a smuggled-in maple sapling. Miraculously, the children keep the tree alive in the camp, even as they themselves weaken or die.
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Jan 9, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Lesa Cline-Ransome |James E. Ransome |Monica Brown |John Parra
An excellent depiction of a life lived with purpose. A kid-lit powerhouse team delivers a warm tribute to a civil rights icon known for making good trouble. John Lewis grew up in segregated Troy, Alabama, raised by sharecropper parents who worked hard but had little to show for it. What his family did provide was love in abundance. Lewis’ desire for education often took a back seat to the needs of the farm, but he read whatever was available.
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Dec 29, 2023 | 
audiofilemagazine.com | Lesa Cline-Ransome
A superb ensemble of narrators brings this story of familial love and racial oppression in 1930s Mississippi to life. Tyla Collier aptly voices Lamb’s hesitancy to befriend the daughter of the town’s racist optometrist. Ultimately, Lamb's kindness has disastrous consequences. Each narrator is paired perfectly with a specific character. Collier sweetly voices Lamb, successfully depicting her gentleness. Kevin Free voices Simeon, Lamb’s studious and protective brother.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
booklistonline.com | Lesa Cline-Ransome
Illus. by James E. Ransome.
Jan. 2024. 48p. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman, $18.99 (9781534496620). Grades 2-6. 328.73.
REVIEW.
First published November 1, 2023 ().
This picture-book biography for older readers introduces the late civil rights leader John Lewis, showcasing the experiences that shaped his philosophy and activism, from childhood to early adulthood.
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Oct 24, 2023 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Angela Joy |Chris Paul |Courtney Elizabeth Lovett |Lesa Cline-Ransome
Children will come away with a hazy sense of Prince but a firmer grasp on the healing power of music in hard times. Lavender-washed pages background this picture-book tribute to Prince. Author Joy grew up in Prince’s childhood neighborhood in Minneapolis’ Northside and even performed with him once; her lyrical tribute to the groundbreaking Black musician is allusive and evocative, eliciting feelings rather than unreeling facts.
